


new universe, same face

by mothicalcreatures (laelreenia)



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016), X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Bigender Alex, Bisexual MacGyver, Dimension Travel, Gen, Mentions of Trans Woman Thornton, Nonbinary Character, Science, Spot the Darwin Reference, Time Travel, Trans Character, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 09:08:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8366512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laelreenia/pseuds/mothicalcreatures
Summary: What happens when you drop a MacGyver into an alternate universe? He makes a beeline for the person with the same face as him.
Or,
The fic where Angus MacGyver meets Alex Summers.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A prompt from Tumblr.
> 
> "May I request a fic of Macgyver at the Xavier mansion and he runs into Alex and they have that weird 'Are you my twin or something?' moment?"
> 
> This kind of deviated a bit from the prompt a bit, but here it is.

Mac didn’t realize at first just how much he resembled Alex Summers, because the first time they’d met Alex was in a dress and a full face of makeup. Mac couldn’t deny there was some resemblance, but it wasn’t until he saw Alex the next day, makeup less, that he realized just how close the resemblance was. No wonder Alex’s little brother had done a double take when he saw Mac. 

Mac wanted to talk to Alex but things seemed hectic at the moment. Mac wasn’t entirely clear what was going on, but he’d read enough comics to realize that something big had probably just happened. And that was what made this whole thing weirder than just meeting a doppelganger. He was in another universe, another dimension. One where the X-Men were real. Mac wondered if his understanding of this universe might have been enhanced if he’d seen the X-Men movies. He had vague memories of seeing the one that came out in 2000, but he hadn’t seen any of the newer ones. He knew the newest was called “X-Men: Apocalypse” but that was pretty much it. Mac just wasn’t a huge movie person.

Still, Mac wasn’t particularly worried about not knowing the ins and outs of this universe. He knew, probably more than enough by having read the comics, but, like Scott being Alex’s younger brother in this universe, he couldn’t assume any of that knowledge was inherently true. Besides, getting Mac back to his own universe was the most pressing thing to focus on. 

It was very interesting get be working in a lab from the 80’s, it was definitely state of the art for it’s time, but it was not the science labs Mac was used to at all. In Mac’s eyes everything seemed incredibly dated. It helped that Hank McCoy was more than willing to hear Mac out about improvements, of course not all of it was feasible with their technological constraints, because while there was a lot Mac could hack, his skill set only took him as far as the materials he had to work with.

He spent a week working with Hank in his lab before he really had a solid chance to talk to Alex. 

Alex had her own section of his lab, it was smaller than Hank’s, but clearly adequate for the work she was doing. Though Mac wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing. He used that to open the conversation.

“What are you working on?”

Alex looked up from the rock sample she’d been looking at. “Just reanalyzing a few specimens. I don’t have anything really going on right now. I’m still getting my bearings on having a lab again. I haven’t really had the chance to do anything since college.”

“What’s your field?”

“Geophysics. You?”

“Little bit of everything,” Mac said. “I never really narrowed it down to one subject, physics and chemistry were strong points though. I didn’t exactly stay in college long enough to graduate. Just two years.”

Alex nodded. “I’d hoped to get my Masters degree, but I never go the chance. I suppose I could go back, but… well, I’ve got more things to worry about now.”

“Why didn’t you?” Mac asked.

“I got drafted the year after I graduated, and from there… I never had the chance to go back. I wasn’t doing the kind of work that let me go to school.” Alex gave Mac an appraising look like she was trying to decide something about him.

“How old are you?” Mac asked. He’d assumed that Alex was the same age he was, she looked the same age as Mac, if not a bit younger.

“Thirty-nine as of a week ago.” 

Mac gaped a little and Alex smirked. “How old did you think I was?”

“Closer to my age,” Mac admitted. “I’m twenty-six.”

Alex nodded. “Hank said he thinks there’s some part of my mutation that slows down my aging. Something to do with the way I metabolize energy.”

“Huh…” Mac trailed off for a moment, gathering his thoughts. “Can I ask a personal question?”

“You can ask it, but I reserve the right to not answer it.”

That was fair. “Are you a girl all the time, or is it an on and off thing? I’ve heard people call you ‘he’ and ‘she’.”

“On and off,” Alex said. “When I was younger I leaned more towards being a guy more often than not, but as I’ve gotten older it seems to be evening out. It’s usually fairly obvious based on how I’m dressed.” 

Mac nodded. “My boss is a trans woman.”

“Is the… climate different where and when you’re from?” Alex asked. Pushing aside what she’d been working in favor of the conversation.

“Yeah, stuff’s progressed since the 80s, but it’s still a struggle. Same-sex marriage is legal in all fifty states.”

Alex let out a long breath. “That’s incredible.”

“It’s still a fight, especially when it comes to trans rights, but…”

“You can’t deny the progress,” Alex finished. “I hope things pan out similarly here.”

“Yeah.” Mac couldn’t really think of anything else to say. 

“Are you queer?” Alex asked, nipping the awkward silence in the bud before it could really take hold.

Mac nodded. “Yeah, I’m bi.” Again Mac couldn’t think of any way to further the conversation.

“Is talking to me awkward for you?”  
“Little bit,” Mac admitted. “I’m still kind of hung up on how similar we look.”

Alex chuckled. “It is a little weird.”

“I think it’s easier when you’re wearing makeup, then we don’t look quite so…”

“Is that why you waited until today to talk to me?”

“That wasn’t intentional,” Mac said. “It seems a little hectic here right now and I’ve been down here working with Hank so I haven’t seen much of other people.”

“How is that going?”

Mac sighed, running a hand through his hair. “It’s going. We’re hitting a lot of walls.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Alex said. “Though of course it’s not like what you’re trying to do is easy.”

Mac huffed. “Yeah, it’s kind of hard to replicate something you didn’t know was scientifically possible.”

“It’ll be a major breakthrough when you do figure it out,” Alex said. “Interdimensional travel’s kind of a big thing.”

“You seem confident that we’ll get it.”

“I know Hank, he’s not going to stop until he has the answer he wants and from what he’s told me you’re the same way.”

Mac sighed. “I guess I’m worried there isn’t an answer.”

Alex shook her head. “There has to be an answer. You wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t.”

That was true, Mac supposed. Somehow he’d wound up here, that meant there had to be some way for him to get back. 

“How are you adjusting to being here? I know it’s only been a week, but you seem… fairly well adjusted.”

“Adapting to unusual situations is a strong suit of mine.” Mac said. “In my line of work adaptability’s key to survival.”

Alex nodded, smiling a little wistfully. “It’s a good trait to have.”

Mac felt like there was something being left unsaid, but he didn’t pry. “It’s certainly helpful in tight situations.” 

“You find yourself in situations like that often?” 

Mac laughed a bit. “Sometimes it feels like that’s all my job’s made of.”

“What do you do, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I-” Well he’d already started out by being truthful so why not continue. “Well the place I work for, the Phoenix Foundation, it’s a science think tank that operates partially as a cover for… undercover stuff. Basically, if the CIA and FBI can’t handle something we go in.”

“So kind of like the X-Men, but without powers.”

“Kind of, but we’re more low-key and by low-key I kind of mean top secret. The cover as a think tank’s there for a reason.”

Alex nodded. “That makes sense and I can see how that could lead to a lot tight situations.” 

“Like I said, it makes adaptability key.”

“Adapt to survive,” Alex said.

There was something about the way Alex said it, that made Mac feel like the phrase meant more than she was saying. Mac really didn’t have the faintest idea of what that could be though and all he could muster in response was a “Yeah.” 

He was going to watch the X-Men movies when he got back to his universe.


End file.
